Markets Update: Short Term Recovery - Is a Bullish Reversal in Sight?

Cryptocurrency prices are back on the mend after a great majority of digital assets plunged last week losing 10-20 percent or more in value. Since then, the digital currency economy has regained some strength bouncing back from a low of US$186 billion to $205 billion on Saturday, September 15.

Crypto-Markets See Some Gains After Some Slashed Prices Last Week — But Is It Enough for a Recovery Rally?

Last week, as BTC/USD and ETH/USD short positions (bets against the cryptocurrency’s price) stacked up reaching all-time highs, many traders were unsure of the outcome. Then, throughout much of the week, a good portion of digital assets except bitcoin core (BTC) lost significant value, bringing BTC market dominance close to 60 percent. However, 48 hours later cryptocurrencies like ethereum (ETH) rebounded in value and spiked 20 percent, bitcoin cash jumped over 15 percent and BTC prices saw a minimal 5 percent lift. This has led to BTC’s market dominance among 1900+ coins down to 55 percent. All of the consecutive rises in value pushed the entire crypto-economy up over $19 billion leading to today’s overall $205 billion dollar market valuation. The top ten cryptocurrencies are seeing gains between 1-9 percent with ETH and LTC leading the pack today.

Top ten crypto-market caps on Saturday, September 15, 2018.

There’s a bit more optimism this week as there’s been plenty of positive news within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Overstock.com revealed recently that customers will soon be able to purchase digital assets through its portfolio company Bitsy. Abra added native bitcoin cash (BCH) support this week to their multi-currency wallet. Meanwhile, Bitgo has received regulatory approval to begin offering custodial services for institutional digital currency investors.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Market Action

Bitcoin cash (BCH) this Saturday is trading for an average spot price of around $458 per BCH. The decentralized cryptocurrency has an overall market capitalization of around $7.9 billion and 24-hour trade volume is $280 million. According to Satoshi Pulse statistics, the top five exchanges swapping the most BCH this weekend include Lbank, Coinex, Okex, Huobi-pro, and Hitbtc. The top currency pairs traded for bitcoin cash this weekend include USDT (46.5%), BTC (32.7%), ETH (10.1%), USD (5.6%), and QC (2.2%). Bitcoin cash markets hold the sixth highest trade volumes today below litecoin (LTC) and just above dash (DASH) volumes.

BCH/USD Technical Indicators

Looking at the 4-hour and daily charts for BCH/USD on Bitfinex shows BCH dropped about 22 percent since the first week of September. But over the last 48 hours BCH bulls have managed to recover over 15 percent of those losses. On the 4-hour chart, the two Simple Moving Averages (SMA) have recently cross paths with the 200SMA above the 100SMA trendline. This indicates the path towards the least resistance is still the downside. However, the daily Relative Strength Index (RSI) is meandering around 37.4 indicating bears are likely growing exhausted trying to hammer these markets. BCH bulls need to close out today and tomorrow’s trading sessions with some higher highs in order for them to reverse the current trends. Looking at order books shows there are large buy walls between the current vantage point and $550. On the back side, if bearish sentiment regains strength, then there are solid foundations from here until $388.

Bitcoin Core (BTC) Market Action

Bitcoin core (BTC) is trading for $6,555 per coin today and the entire market valuation is around $113 billion. Similarly to BCH trade volume, BTC’s global trade volume is much lower than usual this weekend at $3.52 billion swapped over the last 24 hours. The top trading platforms today exchanging the most BTC include Bitflyer, Binance, Bitmart, Coinex, and Idax. BTC’s volume by currency shows tether (USDT) holds 58 percent of today’s market trades. This is followed by USD (20%), JPY (10.2%), KRW (3.4%), EUR (2.7%), and BCH (2%).

BTC/USD Technical Indicators

The BTC/USD daily and 4-hour charts on Coinbase Pro and Bitstamp indicate bears are showing signs of tiring out. BTC/USD charts are similar to BCH/USD with some slight differences this weekend. For instance, the 100SMA is above the 200SMA trendline showing the path towards the least resistance may be towards the upside. However, the two SMAs look as though they may cross hairs in the short term indicating a different outlook. The daily RSI (47.6) shows the bulls and bears are parting ways and a trend reversal could be in the cards. Order books show there’s some heavy resistance from here until $6,900 and another pitstop around $7,100-7,200 range. Looking behind us we can see some foundational support between now until the $5,900-5,700 and bears will be stopped there for what looks like a while.

The Verdict: Cryptocurrency Markets Need to Close the Weekend With Some Daily Highs

Positivity in the news is a bit better but in order to see a significant bullish trend reversal crypto-markets need users, traders, and demand from emerging markets. As mentioned above, crypto-bulls need to tread past some higher highs and close out the day’s trading sessions on a good note. But as we’ve seen in the past there’s been plenty of bull traps this year, making traders leery of betting on a trend reversal. The next few days will determine if digital asset markets can recover or drop below the bottoms they’ve held for the past nine months.

Where do you see the price of BTC, BCH, and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comment section below.

Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

In today’s market action, several of the day’s top 20 gainers have seen eight-figure trade volume over the last 24… read more.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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